It was awesome to see so many people at the opening, the parking lot was packed! The skiing was also surprisingly good and the Olympic 5 km red and blue courses and the biathlon loop is all rolled. We can also ski up towards Callaghan Lodge. This is perfect in terms of getting ready for racing. Just a few more centimeters of snow and we can start testing race skis!

First snow camp of the season: Silver Star, it was great!

Due to lack of snow at the Callaghan half of the CVTC-team headed out to Vernon and Silver Star for the first snow camp of the year. We had already touched the white stuff with our skis at the Callaghan Lake after some awesome grooming by the Callaghan Country crew.

Thanks to a friend to a friend to Thomsen we had a sweet set up at a condo in Creek side. A 15 cm dump of snow during the first night made the skiing great for preseason training. Nothing for your race skis but enough to do what we came for; good volume, good technique and some intensity in the end.

Part of the Canadian World Cup team and the 2010 team was there as well. It was great to catch up with them after the fall camp we had together in Nipika. It’s nice to be out there, watching the next level for the training centre athletes and see what they are good for. We did a time trial together and I think everyone is excited for racing.

11 days after the arrival to the Star we headed back to the Callaghan. It was a good camp! We had good skiing, a great dinner in Vernon and a couple of nice moments at a café in the village (thanks to the waitress who took care of our bill!) The athletes look good, technique and transitions gets better and better and within two weeks they should be ready for the first race. Then we’re coming back to the Star, aiming for gold!

The CVTC-team spent Monday and Tuesday at Pacific Sport in Vancouver. Their test lab is located at the University of BC and this was our third visit for the season. Our third time checking sub-max levels and VO2-max. The test is a good tool for analyzing and to put numbers to what you feel and see out training.

All the athletes are in a good place for wrapping up the fall and get ready for snow training. They have done a good job so far but there’s still a lot that needs to be done before the first race. Stay tuned for updates!

So how did it go? After a skate sprint, a 15/30km pursuit race, a 10/15km freestyle race and a classic sprint the conclusion is: a lot of new knowledge for the athletes. The opportunity to in advance get a feeling of what the week will be like is really good. And also to get done some good speed training.

Next up is a block with easy training and getting ready for sub-max and VO2-max testing in the beginning of next week.

There’s endless of awesome hiking opportunities in the area but Elfin Lakes is a favorite. If you skip the hiking part a run instead, 3 hours will give you a good workout. Starting at the parking lot at an elevation of 900m, climbing up to 1650m and then down to Elfin Lakes at 1400m. Keep going on the Saddle Trail, turn around and take the same way back. 3 hours of great running. You could easy make it way longer, but not this day.

Last time we did this run was with a clear blue sky and we were running in shorts and t-shirt. This day was a little colder and cloudy, but also with fresh snow on the ground reminding us that winter season is close!

Next up was the uphill time trial and after the day we could look back at another two personal records. So after three tests the athletes pulled off totally four personal records. That is still really good with the conditions we hade but this summer we have got used to a lot of people improving a lot. They definitely still improve and doing a great job but it didn’t show of that much on the clock this time. EXCEPT for Leah who was flying and improved her old times with a totally of 4 minutes and 26 seconds…! That gives her the time trial champion of the week title. It also makes you wonder what she did during the recovery week… She was in class the whole week. Showing that you can do both school and ski training together in a really good way.

The last push of the three week training block is over. Today the CVTC-team wrapped it all up with a rollerski race at the Olympic venue. The sprinters did a full sprint race with four rounds playing with different techniques, striding, double poling and so on. What was fastest? We wont tell you, we will show you in the winter! The distance skiers did a freestyle race with individual start over 10km and 15km. All the athletes starts to look a little tired but that’s also the plan right now. Next week is a recovery week and coming back they should be ready to go again. Then we’ll do some more testing again to make sure everyone is heading in the right direction.

Women 10km F
1 Maria Lundgren 31:08
2 Emily 31:28
3 Leah 32:43

Men 15km F
1 Jesse 38:38
2 Pat 40:07
3 Alistair 49:34

Men sprint C
1 Chris
2 Thomsen

The CVTC-team is in a good place, the athletes are doing well and the team spirit is coming along in a really good way. Finally the last work on the rollerski loop at Whistler Olympic Park is done and the trails are connected. Now we have 4.5km of great rollerskiing to play around with before the snow keeps coming. We still also have 10km of access road and some parking lots to go crazy on.

Yesterday the athletes did a rollerski threshold session 1-3 times 4.5km. We did the exact same workout one week ago and now the goal was to go with the same heart rate and lactate but faster! Everyone executed well and did the loop in better times.

We have definitely seen a change in the weather with cold mornings. Still though it gets really warm during the day and training without a t-shirt makes it’s hard to believe it’s October (!). But today the rain started, the rain everyone has been talking about for a long time. Last year it stayed for 18 days. The weather forecast says sun again in three days but we don’t know. We do know that the athletes will end a block of three weeks with good training with a race. We will have a 10/15km freestyle race for our distance skiers and a head to head race for our sprinters. It all takes place Saturday morning at the Olympic venue. Stay tuned for results and pictures. Or if you’re passing, stop by and cheer the athletes on!

Black Tusk is one of the most epic hikes in the area. The sharp peak is rising 2319 meters above sea level and the view is amazing. It’s a popular route for tourists to hike up to the meadows below the peak and yesterday the CVTC-team went for an over distance run in the area. Starting at an elevation of 600 meters half of the team went up and down the same way while the older guys did a point-to-point loop.

The weather has been amazing this summer but the fall comes rolling in and because of some clouds, freezing point at 1600 m of elevation and quit a bit of new snow (!). No one was able to climb the last pitch to the top. But still everyone ended around 5 hours.